Pentagon officials on Monday announced plans to expand the disability evaluation pilot to six more installations in the country, bringing the program total to 27 locations.

The original pilot, launched in 2007, was designed to eliminate duplicate injury evaluations by the agencies by linking both VA and DoD evaluations, letting a single medical analysis stand as the final determination for both active-duty medical boards and subsequent disability ratings.

It came about after complaints from veterans and outprocessing troops about the multiple visits it typically takes for patients to prove their injuries or illnesses, then repeat visits later needed to determine just how much their disability checks could total. In the interim, troops have to hope that paperwork isn't mishandled, miscoded or simply lost as they travel from doctor to doctor.

The process still doesn't move quickly, but it's an improvement; Officials said it trims the time to outprocess from one year to about eight months. So far, more than 5,431 service members have participated in the pilot.

The new locations -- Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lewis, Wash.; Fort Riley, Kan.; and Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, Va. -- should be using the alternate injury evaluations by next March. No word yet on whether other expansions are planned, or if the alternate evaluations could someday become standard practice.

[PHOTO: Leo Shane]